Zimbabwe under siege

Posts Tagged ‘Foreign Direct Investment(FDI)’

As I have argued from the start Brexit simply meant throwing away our geo-political Trump card, namely. the UK as a hub for foreign investment seeking access to the EU single market. Such deals as Osborne’s with China would thus have facilitated the UK’s transition from an economy based on imperial privilege and parasitic finance to that of a nation state amongst others in new multipolar, post-US/UK hegemony world order. As it is we have embarked on a terrifying journey into the abyss of global irrelevance.

Japan’s largest car-maker and a major finance firm have announced that they are reconsidering their operations in Britain after the UK completes its divorce from the European Union, a serious setback to the British government’s efforts to convince companies here that it will be business as usual after Brexit.

Like this:

“A prolonged period of diminishing influence and relative economic decline is now the likely future for our nearest neighbour. The pressure point this time will not be the threat to sterling exposed by a furious US President, but rather the threat from a diversion of FDI flows seeking secure access to the EU single market.”

We need to go as far away as Dublin to find a journalist who can nonchalantly state the obvious. Thank you, John Looby!

He also rounds the argument off nicely:

“In the longer-run, this will likely see a new generation of pragmatic leaders lead the UK back into the EU. As Heath, Jenkins and others ultimately understood in the wake of Suez, they have nowhere else to go.”

Almost 60 years ago a popular and experienced Tory Prime Minister destroyed his career and plunged his country into crisis with a reckless risk which backfired spectacularly. While the retreat from Empire was never likely to be smooth, the stark weakness exposed by the debacle of Suez undoubtedly accelerated the long march to the margins.